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Saturn Cutting Production

11 February 2000

    NEW YORK--According to a BusinessWeek report in its upcoming February 21st edition, General Motors Corp. Saturn division has quietly moved to slash production of its L-Series cars. Suppliers say the company told them in recent weeks it will crank out just 150,000 cars annually, instead of the 200,000-plus originally planned. That means GM will likely have to pay suppliers more for parts, cutting already thin marginsuabout $2,000 per car. When Saturn finally delivered the new L-Series midsize car to its long-suffering dealers last summer, hopes were high. Since July, however, L-Series sales have averaged fewer than 5,000 cars a month, far short of GM's projections of 15,000 monthly sales.